


Torch

by featherxquill



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 13:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6857716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featherxquill/pseuds/featherxquill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, they both receive medals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Torch

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a fic meme on LJ several years ago. Crosspost. Enjoy!

After the war they give Rita a medal, _The Helena Waffling Journalism Prize_. It is in recognition, they say, of the year Rita took without pay to write and publish the article _The Prophet_ would not print, the article that told the wizarding world what it didn't want to hear - that Lord Voldemort had returned. Rita accepts the award with a smile, posing for the cameras, and like any good Slytherin she uses the prestige to her advantage, but it galls.

It galls that she has to lay the biggest success of her career at the feet of that little bitch who outsmarted her.

*

After the war they give Hermione Granger an Order of Merlin. It is for services to the wizarding world, for assisting Harry Potter in bringing down the Dark Lord. Hermione accepts, politely - Kingsley is the Minister and he is doing his best to mend the damage done in recent years - but it is a bittersweet moment.

It feels wrong to accept an accolade for bickering in a tent with her friends and destroying a few horcruxes, when so many people died or begged on the street or were thrown into Azkaban for being just like her.

*

They meet again at a dinner for 'Successful Women of Our Time'. Both are there for the publicity. Rita is selling her image, as she always has - audacity in stiletto heels and a silk blouse - and Granger has embraced her favourite hopeless cause. House-elf liberation, Rita remembers from the Triwizard year, only now she's pedalling it as education. _Be kind to your elves, teach them to respect themselves, and in return they will be loyal to you._

It's taken her an Order of Merlin and a Ministry grant to tell people what Rita could have given for free: _the ones who know your secrets have power over you._

She smokes a cigarette on the balcony and doesn't flinch when the girl appears beside her.

"They only listen to me because of who I am," Hermione says, turning her head as the suggestion of a breeze tugs wisps of her hair from its braid.

"Yes, well," Rita says, passing her the cigarette. "You brought that on yourself, didn't you?"

Hermione turns, propping a hip against the balcony rail and blowing smoke out in a sigh. "You always were an insufferable bitch."

"Everyone needs someone to hate them."

The cigarette burns between them like a tiny torch. Rita reaches out and takes it from Hermione's hand.


End file.
